Donald Ford
Donald Ford, a former captain in the U.S. Army, was the leader of the Immortals in the Boise Wasteland. A rather stoic ghoul, Ford was weathered but not broken by the wasteland. He led his soldiers to do what was right, hell or high water. After many years of hardship, Ford and the Immortals were wiped out by Legate Jigatahi's Legion. They have already been forgotten. Biography Pre-War Donald Ford was born on April 5, 2052, in Boise City. He was, for what he could remember, a largely obedient child, always doing as his parents told him, unlike his much older brother John. He also remembers going to his brother's funeral in 2061 after John died of the "Blue Flu" or New Plague. Soon after, Donald was sent off to military academy in California and barely ever returned back to Idaho. Donald never made many friends, even after he joined the army in 2068. Sent to Anchorage, he fought there for years and came back to the states with many commendations, as well as being promoted to captain. As a favor from one of his superiors, he was posted at the newly built Boise County Army Base so he could visit his family. The Boise City he came back to during the summer of 2077 was a mess. The New Plague had forced many indoors, and motorcycle gangs were stirring up trouble in the outskirts while the National Guard stood idle. All Donald could do was watch while the world ever so slowly began to fall apart. On October 20, he and the rest of the base listened to news of Captain Roger Maxson's desertion in Mariposa. They jeered at this deserter, who was no doubt part of some communist ploy. The Great War The sirens began to go off on the afternoon of October 23, 2077. Scanning the radar, Donald saw the Chinese planes incoming and he could not do anything about it. So, as was protocol, the soldiers of the base filed down into the bunker and waited. They could hear the explosions. boom Post-War Aftermath Two days laters, the soldiers emerged from the bunker. From what they could see, they outside was a real wasteland. So, Captain Donald Ford decided to take charge and say "We should go out there and try to help the people." This was not only motivated by his duty as a soldier but also his duty as a local. Donald could not bear to see his hometown leveled and in anarchy like this. He led the patrol out of the base. They geared up with weapons, riot gear, and gas-masks and headed towards police headquarters. There, they met almost a hundred looters, biker scum. There were too many of them, and Donald was forced to retreat along with his remaining men. Upon returning to base, Donald decided to suit up in his old T-45 power armor to try to take down the looters, but that was no good either. They had left by that time, off to pillage somewhere else. By that time, the men had been developing some kind of sickness. Donald concluded that it must be from the radiation, and they might all have it now. However, when hair and skin began to fall off some of his soldiers' bodies, Captain Donald became afraid. What does this mean? What is happening? Thoroughly convinced the soldiers were suffering from some advanced form of the New Plague, Captain Ford locked down the Boise County Army Base. It did not open for another decade.... In that time, Donald himself succumbed to ghoulification, albeit slower because of his power armor. Also, when he reluctantly let in a few human refugees from the wasteland, he found that whatever was affecting himself and his soldiers was not affecting them. As the realization that they would forever be ghouls sunk in, everyone became rather cynical about the whole situation, even Captain Donald for a time. He even tried to commit suicide by overdosing on psycho, but the chem had less of an effect on him because of his ghoulification. The Boise Mutant Horde attacked the Army Base in 2089. Captain Donald led the rifles on the roof, gunning down many mutants. This siege, this new war gave meaning to the soldiers and life that they didn't have before. Donald noticed that and exploited it. When the Mutants finally wandered off, Captain Ford gave a stirring speech on the new immortality of the group and how they should lead Boise into a new, better age. They agreed and from then on, they were known as the Immortals. They realized retaking Boise would be hard, what with mutants and bandits everywhere, but someone had to do it. Captain Ford, along with his friend Kraig Leland, planned out the Immortals' gameplan. Advance fast and leave no threat stand. Patrols became common in southeast Boise in the 2090s and it was on the verge of being livable. That was when they tried Operation Wildfire. Operation Wildfire was an all or nothing attack meant to break mutant and raider opposition in the east side of the city. Captain Ford and three other power armored soldiers would lead the Immortals to strike at the rotten heart of the city. This, inevitably, failed. The mutants surged, killing Kraig Leland and cutting Captain Ford and most of the Immortals off from their Army Base. Before long, a whole mutant town was built around the base, unofficially know as Siegeville. Locked Out Some, like Private George Pitt, lost hope when it appeared that the base was lost. Captain Ford did not. Instead, he recovered his fallen comrade's armor and built a new headquarters named Fort Boise in Boise Park. It was then that the Immortals began to connect with the rest of Boise. Captain Ford led many sorties and skirmishes in the years "on the park". Some have even become almost legendary. Ford prefers not to talk about past battles, thinking it bad luck. In 2120, Fort Boise was overrun by mutants and abandoned. From then on to 2249, the Immortals resorted to raiding. It turned out, they were quite good at this and raided Boise Boys and other raiders for years. Captain Ford hated this, seeing it as "becoming thieves of thieves". In 2149, Captain Ford returned to the Army Base, after almost fifty years of exile. He then got acquainted with the Private Harry Nunnelee, who promoted for loyal service. Nunnelee's upbeat personality initially put Ford off, but he got used to it. The two became good friends once they got to know one another. Captain Ford later focused more on scavenging to replenish the Immortals' low equipment and ammunition in the late twenty-second century. This led him into a war with the Slicksters, cannibalistic scavengers, that he later won, with power armor and tear gas. This victory even made Ford crack a smile. The War It was then that the Brotherhood Civil War took place, Idaho vs. Core Region. This negatively affected the Immortals' when the Brotherhood (it didn't matter which one) took the Immortals' power armor and killed Nunnelee. This took Captain Ford to a dark place. It was then he began his weekly visits to the Morningstar Brothel, a dangerous journey through mutant territory. There, every week of the next few years, he unloaded his pleasures and sorrows onto the women of the brothel. It did not help, but it was a habit he would not break until 2232. Soon after that, in 2256, Captain Ford, along with the rest of the Immortals', were forced to join Luther's Warhost and fight for the Unity. It was a movement he despised fighting for a leader he despised now fighting in a city he now, after all these years, despised. In 2265, the nightkin the Immortals were serving under was killed by Zack Chainsaws. To avoid being turned into chum, Captain Ford and the rest made their way back to the Boise County Army Base, which had been ransacked by Luthor's Warhost. Now they numbered twenty-three, a third of their original number. At this time, one of the Immortals made a suggestion to Captain Ford. Why don't we have the people help us by helping them? Outreach Ford just waved him off, but in the back of his mind, he could not answer that. He had never trusted civilians, ever since the war broke out. But should he now? He had to. So after that, Ford tried to connect with the people of the Boise Wasteland. Instead of skulking in the shadows sniping super mutants, Captain Ford walked up to people and tried to talk to them. To some, this was off-putting, to others it was kind of sweet. At first, they called Ford and his soldiers Regulators, but they were soon corrected. They were Immortals. Another place the Immortals won friends was at the Long Pine Trading Post, where they began to send troops to protect as a statement of friendship. Today, when Captain Donald Ford isn't trying to appeal to good nature of the people of the Boise Wasteland, he is attempting to force back the northern advance of Legate Jigatahi's Legion. Hopefully, a good solid beat down will force them to reconsider attacking the Immortals... The Legion However, after harassing the Legion for several years, Legate Jigatahi decided to deal with the Immortals once and for all. Captain Donald Ford and his men fought their best against the Legion but in 2283, Legate Jigahati and a full centuria marched on the Army Base. Ford and his remaining Immortals fought long and hard but they could not stand against a direct assault. One of the last survivors, Captain Ford attempted to assassinate Legate Jigatahi with a grenade when he entered the base but only succeeded in killing himself and a single legionary. He was defiant to the end. Personality Ford had a rather stoic attitude towards most things, as it was the only thing that made him last as long as he did in the Boise Wasteland. However, he did have a couple of very emotional moments such as after the death of friend Harry Nunnelee where he began to drink and whore, which he stopped in due time. In more recent years, Ford opened up so as to gain support for the Immortals. Reaching out to regular wastelanders, Ford often tried to relate to their lives and spin it so as to drum up support for the Immortals. Ford was the harshest judge of himself and deep down always felt like a complete failure. A failure to John, a failure to his parents, a failure to Harry, a failure to his country, and sometimes even a failure to his men. Ford tried to hide this, but it sometimes welled up in bouts of depression and attempted suicides (all failed). That being said, he did much better than most of the Immortals', who all suffered from either severe PTSD or dementia. Appearance A tall, rather heavy set ghoul, Ford often covered his face, as he was ashamed to look at himself. He kept well dressed and in uniform at all times so as to set a good example for the other men. Equipment Assault Carbine Ford's trusty assault carbine carried him through many battles and saved him in many scrapes. Not as well put together as it once was but reliable enough. U.S. Army Combat Armor An old stand-by, Ford always kept a few suits of these around, to remind him of where he came from. Quotes About By Category:Ghouls Category:Idaho Category:Deceased